Date: 09/01/2019

Number: 1

I was surprised to see my resident Black Chinned hummingbird this afternoon. He has been coming for 4 summers now and is still as feisty as ever, and allows me to approach him. Often he perches on my window feeder overnight, and during the day he will perch nearby and chase away other hummers from my other feeders. He even patrols around the perimeter of my cottage on ocassion, where he will try to control at least 8 of my other feeders. He will probably stay as long as there are other hummers around to chase. Right now I have 6 or 7 female and young male Ruby throats and an ocassional migrant. 8 others, who had become pudgy, with puffed up chests and bellies, left about 4 days ago.

Editor's note: contacted observer for photo.

A little history on his first arrival 4 years ago: He arrived with another male and 2 or 3 females. All that summer they worked as a team, guarding and patrolling up to 20 feeders I hung within 50 feet of my cottage, chasing away all other hummers. I tried putting up visual barriers and more feeders, but each time they defeated my attempts by relocating to more strategic perches. Even the females would be involved in the guarding and chasing.

I hope you can confirm or refute my belief that he is a Black chinned. He has been coming for 4 years now, and each year I become more convinced that he is. This year, when he did not migrate 10 days after the adult male Ruby throats did, my conviction probability increased to 99 percent.

Redding, CT

Latitude: 41.3 Longitude: -73.4

Observed by: Nicola
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